Criminal history Check Compliance
Saves Time, Money
Financial institutions have a special obligation to check the criminal history of their employees. Federal regulations under the Finan- cial institutions Reform Recovery and enforcement act of 1989 (FiR- Rea) mandate that financial institutions take steps to avoid hiring—or permitting participation in its affairs—anyone who has been convicted
of “breaches of trust or dishonest acts.” Failure to comply can result in
fines of up to $1 million per day.
With one in eight fingerprint applicant submissions resulting in a “hit”
for a criminal history, banks must
protect against costly fines, internal
fraud risk, and reputational damage.
The American Bankers Association (ABA) offers financial institutions
the results of their employee criminal
background checks within 24 hours of
being processed—an improvement in
service that saves these organizations
valuable time and money.
The improved service significantly
reduces the turnaround time for Fed-
eral Bureau of Investigation criminal
“channeling agent” through which financial institutions submit their employee fingerprints. The ABA is one
of the oldest and largest channelers
of fingerprints sent to the FBI to be
screened through its national database.
More than 65,000 law enforcement
agencies submit information to this
database. Criminal history checks help
uncover employees who have committed criminal acts and can help reduce
the risk of internal fraud.
ABA recommends that all financial institution employees should be
fingerprinted, and personnel in high-risk areas—such as those with access
to cash, wire transfer, and sensitive
information—should be fingerprinted
every three to five years.
For more information or to receive
ABA’s specifications for electronic submission, call 1-800-BANKERS or visit
the ABA Web site at www.aba.com. BC
history record checks, which formerly
took several weeks. Now, ABA users
have the ability to receive criminal
history record information reports in
an electronic format in less than a day.
“We are thrilled to offer our users
the ability to get a response in less than
24 hours,” said Tom Judd, ABA Direc-
tor of Technical Services. “The ABA
users have the comfort of knowing
they can obtain a nationwide check,
not just a state check from their local
police, almost immediately. Also, our
fees are lower than ever.”
Since 1982, ABA has been the FBI’s
Top 10 Reasons to Use ABA Fingerprint Services
it’s an excellent defense against the
risk of internal fraud.
match those of an individual with an active
warrant for his or her arrest.
state, and local agencies).
it reduces hiring and training expenses
of ineligible applicants.
the ABA has a direct connection to
the FBi’s iAFiS, the largest biometric
database in the world.
An individual can change name,
appearance, etc., to avert authorities,
Financial institutions are required by
law to conduct criminal background
checks to avoid hiring persons convicted of
crimes of dishonesty or breach of trust. use
of the ABA service provides an inexpensive
way to comply with this requirement.
Approximately one out of every eight
applicant fingerprints submitted is
found to be identical with an existing
criminal history record.
the ABA submits all fingerprints to
the FBi in an electronic format, which
significantly reduces the turnaround time
to 24 hours or less.
in a typical year, more than 2,500
applicant fingerprint submissions
the FBi’s integrated Automated
Fingerprint identification System
the ABA has been providing this
service to financial institutions for
